It’s hard to imagine an apple pie without apples, a pecan pie without pecans, or banana cream pie without bananas. But when ingredients were scarce — whether for economic reasons, seasonality, or during times of war — desperate times called for desperate measures. Yes, even when making pie. It was during these times that a category of pies, known as desperation (or “make-do”) pies, were created. It’s no surprise that several resurfaced during the Great Depression and World War II, when the high cost of fresh ingredients and rationing made it necessary to make substitutions. Many of them are now beloved classics in various regions of the United States, whether people need to make do or not.
One of the best known desperation pies is one of those old-school desserts no one seems to make anymore: mock apple pie. If you were born after 1930, you might think that the pie (also known as cracker pie) was created by Nabisco as a way to promote its Ritz crackers. But even though the recipe regularly appeared on the brand’s distinctive red box from the 1930s until the 1990s, the dessert dates back until at least 1857, when a recipe appeared in the “Saturday Evening Post.” The pie is generally made with salted crackers, water, sugar, and cream of tartar. Some recipes also add butter. If the thought of crackers instead of apples doesn’t appeal to you, there’s always green tomato pie, which swaps in late-summer tomatoes that haven’t ripened on the vine.
Make-do pies include sugar cream, shoofly, and oatmeal
If you’re one of those people who likes the gelatinous, sugary-sweet center of a pecan pie, you might like mock pecan or oatmeal pie. Thought to have been created in the South during the Civil War when the nuts were scarce, the dessert has the same gooey brown sugar filling as the real thing, with rolled oats giving it some nutty flavor. Another make-do pie thought to taste like pecan pie without the nuts is water pie, a confection made with flour, salt, sugar, butter, vanilla, and cider. And if it’s the custardy part of a banana or chocolate cream pie that delights you, you’d probably like the state pie of Indiana, the sugar cream pie. The treat is thought to date back to 19th-century Quaker communities in the region and is made with just five ingredients. Eggs in this custard are optional.
Other desperation pies you may be familiar with — by name if not by taste — are shoofly pie and chess pie. Shoofly pie, one of the most iconic desserts in the state of Pennsylvania, is a molasses-based crumb pie. The Pennsylvania Dutch created the dessert in the 1870s to celebrate the United States’ 100th birthday, and it was known as a Centennial Cake. Chess pie also has a custard-like filling and, although there isn’t a drop of cheese in the recipe, may have derived from English cheese pie. Whether you’re feeling nostalgic or have to make-do, there’s one thing people agree on: Even without their seemingly staple ingredients, these pies are delicious.
